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Here's my schedule for people who want to run into me: 20 Questions for the Guests of Honor
Friday, 1pm - 3pm, Botanic B
The Writing Professional
Saturday, 2pm - 3pm, Maple
A Reading from "The Worth of a Shell"
Saturday, 3pm - 4pm, Maple Your best bet is on Saturday during the reading. I don't anticipate that being too crowded so it will be a nice opportunity to chat. I'll have guava flowers, they are tasty! My time outside the con activities is already booked—I'm only going to be in Chicago from Friday afternoon until late Saturday—so I apologize in advance for anyone I miss seeing. Hopefully next year will be more relaxed! These are the art show pieces: OriginalsPart of the poppy money will be donated to charity (wounded veterans).    Giclees        Postcards and BookmarksPart of the bookmark money will be donated to charity (cancer research).    [ Error: Irreparable invalid markup ('<img [...] marks">') in entry. Owner must fix manually. Raw contents below.] Here's my schedule for people who want to run into me: <blockquote><i>20 Questions for the Guests of Honor </i> Friday, 1pm - 3pm, Botanic B <i>The Writing Professional</i> Saturday, 2pm - 3pm, Maple <i>A Reading from "The Worth of a Shell"</i> Saturday, 3pm - 4pm, Maple</blockquote> Your best bet is on Saturday during the reading. I don't anticipate that being too crowded so it will be a nice opportunity to chat. I'll have guava flowers, they are tasty! My time outside the con activities is already booked—I'm only going to be in Chicago from Friday afternoon until late Saturday—so I apologize in advance for anyone I miss seeing. Hopefully next year will be more relaxed! These are the art show pieces: <b>Originals</b> Part of the poppy money will be donated to charity (wounded veterans). <a href="http://www.stardancer.org/art/saltedpoppies.jpg" target="_new"><img src="http://www.stardancer.org/art/saltedpoppies.jpg?size=tn" alt="Salted Poppy Remembrance"/></a> <a href="http://www.stardancer.org/art/truthatnight2.jpg" target="_new"><img src="http://www.stardancer.org/art/truthatnight2.jpg?size=tn" alt="Truth at Night, Complete"/></a> <a href="http://www.stardancer.org/art/mffkeycard.jpg" target="_new"><img src="http://www.stardancer.org/art/mffkeycard.jpg?size=tn" alt="You Are My Love of the City"/></a> <b>Giclees</b> <a href="http://www.stardancer.org/art/shamesaltar4.jpg" target="_new"><img src="http://www.stardancer.org/art/shamesaltar4.jpg?size=tn" alt="Shames Altar"/></a> <a href="http://www.stardancer.org/art/muchadlane5.jpg" target="_new"><img src="http://www.stardancer.org/art/muchadlane5.jpg?size=tn" alt="Mucha Dlane"/></a> <a href="http://www.stardancer.org/art/imperialthorns10.jpg" target="_new"><img src="http://www.stardancer.org/art/imperialthorns10.jpg?size=tn" alt="Imperial Thorns"/></a> <a href="http://www.stardancer.org/art/dancerwithbones4.jpg" target="_new"><img src="http://www.stardancer.org/art/dancerwithbones4.jpg?size=tn" alt="Dancer with Bones"/></a> <a href="http://www.stardancer.org/art/erantheandbeast8.jpg" target="_new"><img src="http://www.stardancer.org/art/erantheandbeast8.jpg?size=tn" alt="Mothers Guardian"/></a> <a href="http://www.stardancer.org/art/wiggletcompanion4.jpg" target="_new"><img src="http://www.stardancer.org/art/wiggletcompanion2.jpg?size=tn" alt="Babys Companion"/></a> <a href="http://www.stardancer.org/art/purplegreengold.jpg" target="_new"><img src="http://www.stardancer.org/art/purplegreengold.jpg?size=tn" alt="White Blossoms"/></a> <a href="http://www.stardancer.org/art/keeperdoe.jpg" target="_new"><img src="http://www.stardancer.org/art/keeperdoe.jpg?size=tn" alt="The Keeper"/></a> <b>Postcards and Bookmarks</b> Part of the bookmark money will be donated to charity (cancer research). <a href="http://www.stardancer.org/art/willownightmoon7.jpg" target="_new"><img src="http://www.stardancer.org/art/willownightmoon7.jpg?size=tn" alt="Willow, the Moon and Night"/></a> <a href="http://www.stardancer.org/art/thenetdiagonals3.jpg" target="_new"><img src="http://www.stardancer.org/art/thenetdiagonals3.jpg?size=tn" alt="Against All Opposing Forces"/></a> <a href="http://www.stardancer.org/art/tooutlasteternity.jpg" target="_new"><img src="http://www.stardancer.org/art/tooutlasteternity.jpg?size=tn" alt="To Outlast Eternity"/></a> <a href="http://www.stardancer.org/art/bookmarklisinthiremperor.jpg" target="_new"><img src="http://www.stardancer.org/art/bookmarklisinthiremperor.jpg?size=tn" alt="The "Marks" Bookmark"/></a> <a href="http://www.stardancer.org/art/bookmark-harvestgoddess.jpg" target="_new"><img src="http://www.stardancer.org/art/bookmark-harvestgoddess.jpg?size=tn" alt="Harvest Goddess Bookmark"/></a> <a href="http://www.stardancer.org/art/bookmarkkelu.jpg" target="_new"><img src="http://www.stardancer.org/art/bookmarkkelu.jpg?size=tn" alt="Kelu, Moon's Avatar"/></a> <a href="http://www.stardancer.org/art/jokkawaterknower.jpg" target="_new"><img src="http://www.stardancer.org/art/jokkawaterknower.jpg?size=tn" alt="Water-knower"/></a> <a href="http://www.stardancer.org/art/jokkawindweaver.jpg" target="_new"><img src="http://www.stardancer.org/art/jokkawindweaver.jpg?size=tn" alt="Wind-weaver Bookmark"/></a> There will also be freebies, MOO mini cards and cheap bookmarks. Art that isn't sold is coming home with me for a special post-con sale! And that's it! I'm off, back on Sunday! <a href="http://www.stardancer.org"><b>Stardancer Home.</b></a> Tags: cons and appearances, mff, sale
Current Mood: awake, sort of
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Spots the Space Marine is a twice-weekly crowd-sponsored serial. Find out more and read prior episodes.Control Room.Control 1. "****...!" [ Base ] Control 2 : Team Kitty, can you get out from under them?[ Base ] Control 1 : How are you even keeping them off? Off mic. "****! Where are we going to find reinforcements?" In the Warren.Scythe, on the base channel. "We're under a shield bubble." Claws, low. "Told you. You can just hear them gibberin'." Flea. "I don't exactly ****ing BLAME them." [ Base ] Control 2 : Repeating, can you get out?Scythe. "We'll get back to you." Switching channels again. "All right, everyone got a target? One, two, three, now!" Everyone under the shield shoots several times. Bugs explode. Ichor and parts fly. Silence.Claws. "Well, ****. Now we've just got dead bugs piled on us insteada live ones." Spots, squinting. "Do you think the living ones will move them out of the way?" Scythe. "I don't know. Let's see." Two minutes later... nothing.Scythe. "****." Hairball. "Maybe we could try grenades?" Whiskers. "How are we gonna get those ****ers through the dead bugs? Wedge them out?" Claws. "We'll just end up blowin' up more crabs to lie dead on top of us." Flea. "****! This is NOT how I was planning to go! Buried alive under a hundred dead crabs??" Scythe. "More like fifty." Flea. "****! Can't we move out from under them? Kind of scoot the shield along with us?" Everyone looks at Spots. She shakes her head.Spots. "It might be a force-field but it's attached to my arm, and Claws's. We've got a lot of weight on top of us. I don't know if we can move it without breaking something." Scythe. "Even supported by your suits." Spots. "Call it a feeling." Claws. "She might be right. Right now we got the weight in a straight line, arm-spine-ground. We start shiftin' too much we might get shear." Hairball. "Well, we can't go down. We got this grid under us now." Whiskers. "And we can't go side to side." Spots, musing. "I guess that leaves..." Fang, with teeth. " Up." [ Base ] Control 1 : Team Kitty, this is Control. Sitrep.Scythe. "Now we're under a shield bubble with a layer of dead bugs on top. ETA on back-up?" [ Base ] Control 2 : Seven to ten minutes.Scythe. "You have anything on exterior cameras?" [ Base ] Control 2 : Negative, Team Kitty.Scythe. "****. Anything could be out there, waiting for us." Hairball. "We can't stay here, though. Ten minutes is what we had on the shield a few minutes ago." Spots nods. "Unless we contract it. We could probably squeeze in tighter." Flea. "****, I'm close enough to all you ****ers as it is!" Fang. "So the choice is wait or fight." Claws. "That's the size of it." Fang. "The answer's obvious, then, isn't it?" Everyone looks at Scythe, who grins. "**** yeah. We fight!" ###This is going to be fun... right? Right? >.>Stardancer Home.Tags: serial, spots the space marine, writing
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Getting ThereWord of the Dayscission, n. 1 : a division or split in a group or union 2 : an action or process of cutting, dividing or splitting : the state of being cut, divided or splitBaby at 26 MonthsLast night was a bad allergy night, so we were up a while. I have this little hemispherical light-and-music-box sort of thing; you turn the knob and it slowly rotates, casting bright-lit patterns on the ceiling, so we were using that for a while to distract her from not being able to to breathe. Eventually I put her back in her crib with the globe and she sat down, staring at it; I leaned over the crib rail and joined her. And then, because I'm a Mommy, I started righting her stuffed toys and putting them back in the corners. She helped, but by setting all her animals in a circle around the globe. Stuffed tiger, plastic dinosaur, her own rabbit, the duck, the tiny bear, so on and so on, until at last she sat back down and once again we resumed watching the colored lights and listening to the music, attended by a host of plush animals. When I checked back on her later, she'd slumped over asleep and all the animals remained in their circle, gazes now fixed on the dark and silent globe. Current PlansSpots later. Finish up my baking ( guava flower photo!), cooking and packing. And then... resting. I have to be up at 5 AM to get to the airport on time. I'm not planning on posting/checking email over the weekend, though I suppose if I am deeply moved I might tweet something from my cellphone. Somehow I doubt it though, cons are pretty engaging. :) I'll hit "post" on a con schedule tomorrow on my way out the door. Elsewhere• Horse Photos. Total eye candy, from ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) genet. • Harlequin, Author Solutions Form Self-Publishing Imprint Harlequin Horizons. Peculiar! Stardancer Home.Tags: art, daily post, photos, progress
Current Mood:  working
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Last week the nice weather inspired me to head for the nearest park so the baby could run some of her energy off outside. They have a really nice playground there, with swings and a sandbox and a large, interconnected metal play gym with ramps, slides, wobbly bridges and platforms at different heights. My daughter, preferring climbing to nearly all other activities, abandoned me at once for the tallest slide, a curly thing attached to the highest platform, and with all the nonchalance of a new mother I watched her run ahead of me, thinking, "There's no way she can go up that thing backwards." Cue the funny music, please. So my daughter shimmies up that thing before I can even blink twice and ends up on the tallest part of the play-gym, which is more than tall enough for her to break something if she jumps off it. It's higher than my head and my outstretched arms. But my kid is up there. I grabbed the nearest bar, pushed off the ground and hauled myself the heck up, ducking under a rail and scraping my arms up in the process, something that had I stopped to think about I would probably have questioned doing. "Hi!" I said to her. She grinned. And then... we played this game over and over. Her running over the wobbly bridge. Mommy darting after her. Her jumping onto a part of the ramp and Mommy eeling between the guard rails to scrabble onto the platform next to her. Her scooting under the equipment just as other kids are about to stomp on it and Mommy diving after her to scoop her out of the way. Very quickly, I realized that none of my exercise has ever taught me the one thing I absolutely need. Weights have given me some strength, running has given me some stamina and fencing has taught me some quickness. But to put all these things together in a way that gives you the body-knowledge to throw yourself through a tiny tunnel, knowing that you can wiggle out the other side, jump to the ground and take off running so you can leap onto something else... What I'm missing is exercise that works my proprioceptive system: something that teaches me how to move through space. Lacking a city to practice parkour in safely or a Basic Training course to run me through obstacle courses, I got to wondering: how the heck do I get it? It made me wish for an adult-sized play-gym to throw myself at, something with a padded mat under it for the inevitable "whoops, I miscalculated" moments. These are movements our ancient forbears would have been doing, running after deer, ducking under foliage, digging for things, climbing trees. But it's been a long time since any of the humans I know have had to do those things on a daily basis. I strongly suspect that we need this kind of exercise. That as an increasingly sedentary society, our focus on losing muscle tone and cardiovascular health causes us to overlook this far less obvious loss, the intuition to put together every kind of movement, understanding exactly where we need to be in space. And when I think of people's complaints about exercise, isn't this what they're complaining about? They're bored because they're running in place, doing the same things over and over again. They're not touching that ancient thing that makes moving joyous. Because I have to tell you, the third or fourth time I wove between those toddler-sized guard-rails to land on a ramp and run down it, I was having a great time. You could have the strongest body in the world, the most tireless, most quick-footed, and none of it would matter if you didn't use it. Last weekend when I asked about martial arts, what I was struggling toward is finding something that can acquaint me with this kinesthetic knowledge, because when I feel my way through the notion of running at another body and struggling to manipulate it (or avoid being manipulated by it), it feels right. That's why styles that primarily focus on weapons don't interest me: it's got to be me and my body, alone. Off the top of my head I can't think of any other exercise that will accomplish this, but my imagination is necessarily limited. If you know of anything, tell me! If only I could find adult-sized playground equipment. Wouldn't that be fun? I'd go! Stardancer Home.Tags: culture, health, mom in spots
Current Mood: wistful
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Word of the Daymarplot, n : one who frustrates or ruins a plan or undertaking by meddlingFormed apparently from a 17th century habit of prefixing "mar-" to a noun to make a term for someone who spoils something (or mars it). Other examples: mar-joy and mar-all. Baby at 26 MonthsI have been shamelessly attempting to inculcate affectionate behavior in my daughter, because it doesn't seem to come naturally. Kisses she gets now, she'll give us kisses. Hugs seem harder for her. I suppose it's the Leo influence: catlike, she hates being confined. Some things you end up teaching by accidental example, though... as when she put down a large frog stuffed toy and said, "Dah-DEE frawg," and then set a smaller one next to it and said, "Mah-mee frawg." And then pointed their noses at one another and made a kissing noise. She does this now with all the toys she has that are similar enough to be of a type but of slightly different size... ...which is how, peeking into her room to see if she was finally falling asleep for the night, I caught her lying on her back with her two little plastic t-rexes. "Dah-dee dai-noh-sar. Mah-mee dai-noh-saur." Kissing noises. A little pause, then, quiet: "Rar. Rawr!" Cue Mommy tiptoeing away, hand over her mouth. MaskwoodA few of you have asked about the Maskwood in my painting... and... it's not mine! Go find out more at maskwood. Current PlansI'm thinking next year of choosing a few high-profile conventions and sending art to their shows. I stopped doing the con circuit almost a decade ago because I was losing too much money mailing the work out, but I have patrons, customers and fans today that I acquired through that initial effort. It's time to see if I can pick up some new folks. Unless I completely mishandle things, I should be able to soak one or two shows next year. After the brushes though. I have got to finish that next painting before it eats my brain. I already gave up a lot of it to motherhood, I can't afford to lose the rest...! Elsewhere• An Argument for Friendship. An author's take on how relationships don't have to be romantic to be meaningful. From themaskmaker. • In the New Content Economy, Consumers Want Access Not Ownership. Big change here, with attendant opportunities. From jafurtado@twitter. Stardancer Home.Tags: daily post
Current Mood: sleepy
Current Music: The Bravery - Fistful of Sand
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Spots the Space Marine is a twice-weekly crowd-sponsored serial. Find out more and read prior episodes.Control Room. Several stacked screens of cam footage from Team Kitty: all show flailing crabs, or nothing at all, just a shimmering, writhing dark.[ Base ] Control 1: Team Kitty, this is Control. Come in, Team Kitty.[ Base ] Control 2 : Scythe, this is Control. Report.[ Base ] Control 1 : Team Kitty, sitrep please. We can't see a thing here.Control 1. "****...! Oh God! Where are they in that mess?" [ Base ] Control 2 : Team Kitty, report please.The Warren. The first revision crabs have caught up with the new attackers. Nothing can be seen in the corridor except the remains of the wall and the mound of bugs.
...closer...
...closer, squeezing between two crabs...Spots. "Crap." The entire team is packed under Spots's and Claws's second-generation shield, forming a tight hemispherical bubble around them. The crabs are plastered to the edges, trying to get to them.Whiskers. "Wow. Now I know we're in trouble." Hairball and Fang chuckle. Scythe grins. Even Fang snorts with a smile. Spots, squinting as a crab claw scrapes against the shield wall a few inches above her head. "I think we can hold like this for at least ten minutes." Scythe. "Great, we can shoot our way clear, then." Fang. "If we can ****ing get a clear shot..." Scythe. "Well, let's get our backs to one another." Some writhing ensues."****, that was my kidney!" "Didn't need it anyway." "Get outta my lap, Hairball." "Thought you liked me." "Not that much." Scythe. "****, Control's been hammering on my circuit and I didn't see it." Changes channels. "Control, this is Team Kitty. Sitrep is ****ed up, but we're alive. We could use back-up." "Hey, keep your elbow out of my face!" [ Base ] Control 1 : Team Kitty, this is Control. All we're seeing is bug parts."Scythe. "That's because we're under them." Pause. Claws, sotto voce. "Bet they're going dot-dot-dot." Flea, disgusted. "This is so ****ed up." ###A little bit of humor today. -_-Stardancer Home.Tags: serial, spots the space marine, writing
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Word of the Daydivagate, v : to wander or stray from a course or subject : diverge or digressI admit when I first saw this word I read it as "diva gate" and thought "A fence for keeping divas enclosed?" Baby at 26 MonthsI am thinking about (and dreading) my trip at the end of the week; this year the baby is old enough to miss me, but young enough not to understand I'm coming back. This was on my mind on Sunday when I showed up at my parents' house with my daughter. While my mom was holding her, I said to my dad, "How did you do it? How did you go away? I mean, handle it, leaving us on business trips all the time." My mother said, "She's worried about her trip on Friday." My father made a silent "oh"... and then reached over, cupped my head and kissed the top of it. He said some things later, about knowing that my mom was with us, but in the end all his answer was contained right there, in that kiss. In the car, I was thinking that our parents watch us going through all the things they went through with us when we become parents ourselves, and they know they are becoming human to us in a whole different way: there's an intimacy there that can't be duplicated in any other fashion. If you have good parents, it brings you closer; if you don't have good parents, it becomes harder to dismiss their behavior as cavalierly when you understand some of the pressures they were undergoing. You may not agree with their choices, but your judgement is more informed. Either way, I think it's important, this changing of your relationships with your family. Current PlansToday is for backing and bagging the art and printing out care instructions for the originals and giclees. Expect more photos of the work in progress, because I know all of you are waiting on the edge of your seats for photographs of stacks of bookmarks and business cards and art and books. :) Elsewhere• The Secret of Kells is coming to America! For a limited release in theaters. I so want to see this animated film on the big screen. • Readability. Use this to choose settings that make a web-page easier to read and then drag the button onto your bookmark bar. After that, you can "readability" any website to apply those settings to it. No more bright pink letters on dark pink backgrounds. Brilliant! Quote of the Week The world is round, and the place which may seem like the end may also be the beginning. — Ivy Baker PriestStardancer Home.Tags: daily post
Current Mood:  tired
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Dear Artist: Your website is a marvel of layout and CSS magic. It has impressive superimposition of graphics on top of moving text blocks, shiny light-up buttons in unusual spray patterns, and a left-hand margin that ripples in and out like a wave. You also have no gallery, your print shop requires me to find a scroll bar within a text block that extends outside my window frame and is immune to my page-down/arrow-down commands, and you give me no way to link directly to any of the pieces I want to share with other people. Also, let me repeat: you have no gallery. You don't even link to an external gallery site like DeviantArt. Making me go to your print shop in order to decide if I like your art makes me feel pressured into seeing your art in a "BUY IT NOW" context, which makes me unnecessarily surly. In short, your website failed. Presentation should make it easier to find content. If you've mastered that particular (and difficult) aim, you might even attempt the next goal: making it enjoyable to browse content; good luck with that. But something that has to be used should not be designed solely to be looked at. Just a thought. Remembering the Days Before Web 2.0, —A Passerby. (Your turn, readers... tell me your favorite websites that don't make this mistake.) Tags: website
Current Mood: *sigh*
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